


My Love Gone to War

by DesertVixen



Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery
Genre: F/M, Jem goes to war, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-17 03:21:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11842911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: Faith deals with Jem volunteering





	My Love Gone to War

**Author's Note:**

  * For [amazonqueen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/amazonqueen/gifts).



They had never said the words aloud. There had been no need. After all, they could not be married until Jem finished medical school, so why bother with a long engagement? They knew in their hearts, with no need for publicity or jewelry. They would not be poor, but Faith had no desire for a large expensive wedding or trousseau. Once she finished her B.A., she planned to teach while they waited for their life together to begin.

Then it had all come crashing down.

She would always be proud that when the sons of Canada were called, her brother and her Jem had no hesitated to answer. As Jem himself had said, the cubs had to pitch in. Yet when they had come home from Charlottetown in khaki two days later, there had been an awkward moment where they seemed like strangers to her. Jerry had seemed distant. While khaki-clad Jem had not looked anything like the laughing boy-playmate she had admired or the man she loved. 

Looking back, she realized it was the moment when she realized Jem and Jerry would be leaving, and she would not go with them. They would not return to Redmond with everyone else, to make her remaining years a whirl of study and society. Instead, they would be going away.

Oh! How she wished she could go with them, wished the three of them could face this situation as they had faced so many others – together. It would be so much better than being left behind. Walter’s eerie prophecy the night of the dance came to her suddenly – that it would be years – and Faith shivered, wondering how it could possibly be true. She did not believe what many were saying, that it would be over before their boys could even get there. But surely, with young men like Jem and Jerry going, it could not last long.

*** 

Jem and Jerry had disappeared into Mr. Meredith’s study, while the rest of the manse’s occupants attempted normality. When they emerged, Jem drew Faith outside.

She knew he needed to get home, where the rest of the Blythes were waiting to play out a scene similar to the one at the manse. But Faith also knew that she needed a few minutes alone with him, to know that nothing had changed under the uniform. So she walked with him in the moonlight in companionable silence, until they came to the start of the path that would take him to Ingleside.

“I meant to have a ring for you when I asked you to marry me,” Jem said suddenly, taking her hands between both of his larger ones. “But I didn’t want to leave without asking you to be my wife.”  
He had fashioned a late wildflower into a circlet that he slid over her third finger. “Will you marry me, Faith Meredith?”

Her whispered yes was almost lost in their embrace.

*** ***

Her father was waiting in his study when Faith returned to the house. 

“I see he did ask you,” Mr. Meredith said quietly.

Faith blushed. Of course Jem had talked to her father before he asked her, she realized. “He did.”

He did not need to ask what her answer had been. It was clearly written in his daughter’s dreamy smile and blushing cheeks. “That is some good news,” he said. “We could all use a little right now, I think.”

“I don’t want to tell everyone right now,” Faith said after a moment. “I don’t want pitying looks or impertinent questions about something that only concerns us.”

Mr. Meredith nodded. He was quite sure that Faith would get those pitying looks and impertinent questions anyway, Glen St. Mary being what it was. “I understand.”

He watched as she almost danced up the stairs, smiling a sad smile when she was out of his sight. It was a moment of happiness he needed just now.

*** ***

The gray morning took on a fairyland aspect as Faith made her way to their hidden corner in Rainbow Valley. Even the flowers were not quite awake yet, with the dew still on the ground. She had slipped out of the house before anyone else was awake, as she and Jem planned to meet so they could share some quiet moments together before he and Jerry left for Valcartier. She was not the only Meredith keeping a tryst – Jerry had come in quite late last night himself, and Faith was willing to bet Nan Blythe had been out late.

When they went to the station later today to see them off, Faith knew that Jem would belong to everyone. She needed a few minutes where he only belonged to her, where they could pretend that there was no war, no khaki, and that this was just any summer morning. She would send him off with a smile, but she needed this privacy, this time now. She needed something to remember.

Faith was relieved when he came in regular clothes, not his stiff khaki uniform. It was easier to enjoy the moment without the reminder of what was to come. She thought back to the first time she had seen Rainbow Valley, the first meeting with Jem Blythe. The Blythe and Meredith children had shared a meal of trout and friendship that had lasted for over eight years. Of course, she hadn’t known then what Jem would become to her, but she had always admired him.

She could do no less now. He would not be her Jem if he was not brave and loyal and eager to do what was right, despite the personal cost.

They stayed there for some time, neither of them saying anything about what would happen later that day. Instead, they spoke of the future – when all this was over – and the well-loved past, even laughing about some of those less-beloved memories. Leaning against his side, his arm warm and heavy over her shoulders, the sound of his heart beating and his voice – this was all that she had wanted and needed this morning. Tonight, when she was missing him, she would have this moment to help keep her warm.

“Where’s your ring?” Jem asked, a grin on his face as he helped her to her feet and pulled her close, pulling her into a kiss that left her breathless.

“At home for safe-keeping,” she teased. “It would be hard to replace it.”

She had pressed the flower between the pages of her Bible, marking the passage in First Corinthians. The words always made her think of him, and how he teased her about one of the verses bearing her name.

When they parted ways, Faith stood and watched until Jem was out of sight. Only then did she make her way back to the manse to prepare for one of the hardest days of her life.

*** *** 

The scene at the train station was everything she had feared it would be. Most of the Glen had turned out to bid farewell to the first Glen sons to leave, and there was a bustling cheerfulness about it that almost made Faith wish she could shout at people. But she had promised herself that she would not be selfish, that she would send Jem and Jerry off with a brilliant laughing smile, not with tears and sadness. Those she could indulge in later, when she was alone.

She was sure some of the busybodies would be judging her l, but Faith was used to that.

When it happened, it was a sudden mass and rush. As the train pulled in, the sense of anticipation in the air was almost tangible. There was a frenzy of movement, and before Faith quite realized what had happened, Jem swung her around and kissed her – in front of the entire Glen! Dimly, she heard old Mrs. Drew whooping, heard men cheering for Jem and Jerry, but all her attention was for her sweetheart.

His lips were warm against hers as she threw herself into the embrace – their last for some time to come – his voice in her ear, saying “Until I see you again, my love” – and then he was being claimed by the Blythes. The Merediths did the same for Jerry, and Faith forced herself to give one last smile and joke to her beloved older brother as the two of them boarded the train, waving as it pulled out of sight.

Faith stood there until the crowd melted away, fixing that last kiss in her memory forever. Finally, she turned and saw Nan – the only other girl in their world who could quite understand her situation. Both of them were sending not only their brother, but their sweethearts as well, off to war. 

That last kiss in front of their whole world, their stolen moments this morning in Rainbow Valley, the pressed flower in her Bible, the memory of Jem’s voice calling her his love – Faith knew she would draw on all of these things in the coming days. 

Until she saw Jem again, they would have to be enough.

_Until I see you again, my love._

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed the story! Since you didn't specify a pairing, I went with one of my favorites.
> 
> The story has several references to Rilla of Ingleside (particularly Jem kissing Faith at the station, Walter's prophecy, and Jem and Jerry volunteering), but since the book is from Rilla's POV, we don't get much about what Faith and Jem are thinking and feeling.


End file.
